Has the term ‘seaman’ been scuttled?
Like the coronavirus, language has a way of mutating. New words and phrases emerge over time even as old ones are pushed aside, if not scuttled. A good example of the latter is the term ‘seaman’.
It’s the ‘Day of the Seafarer’ instead of ‘Day of the Seaman’. And it’s ‘International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (not Seamen) Convention’. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) and almost everyone else seem to have deep-sixed the term ‘seaman’ in favour of ‘seafarer’.
Are they wrong to do so? Probably not, but some old salts — those who spent years cutting their teeth on navigation and know what life at sea is really like — will tell you that the two words are not the same. Shakespeare was wrong; a rose by any other name wouldn’t smell as sweet. (more…)
